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From wire reports • Thursday February 28, 2013 8:51 AM

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJeff Chiu | Associated PressTarget blames the lackluster fourth-quarter results it reported yesterday on lower holiday sales and the poor performance of a luxury line of goods with Neiman Marcus.

J.C. Penney Co. reported huge losses and plunging sales for its fiscal fourth quarter as the
department store chain’s plan to scale back most coupons and sales events has continued to turn off
shoppers.

The results mark a full year of enormous losses under CEO Ron Johnson, who took on the role in
November 2011 to overhaul every aspect of Penney’s business.

The company, based in Plano, Texas, said it lost $552 million, or $2.51 per share, for the
period that ended on Feb. 2. That compares with a loss of $87 million, or 41 cents per share in the
year-ago period.

Revenue dropped 28.4 percent to $3.88 billion.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 23 cents on revenue of $4.08 billion.

Revenue at JCPenney stores open at least a year dropped 31.7 percent.

Target

Target reported a 2 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit after the second-largest U.S.
discount retailer had its worst holiday-season sales performance in four years amid concern over
higher taxes.

Net income in the quarter that ended on Feb. 2 fell to$961 million from $981 million a year
earlier, the Minneapolis-based company said. Profit per share rose 2 cents to $1.47 as the number
of shares outstanding decreased. Analysts projected $1.48, the average of estimates compiled by
Bloomberg.

Target and competitors such as Wal-Mart Stores are working to keep prices low and draw consumers
with promotions amid an increase in Social Security taxes and delayed income-tax refunds. Target
CEO Gregg Steinhafel struggled to increase sales during the holidays after a luxury goods line
co-branded with Neiman Marcus flopped with shoppers.

Target’s sales rose 6.8 percent to $22.7 billion in the fourth quarter, matching the average of
analysts’ estimates. For the quarter, transactions declined 1 percent, the first drop since the
second quarter of 2009, said David Strasser, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott in New
York.

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world’s largest brewer, said yesterday that its profit fell 4.9
percent in the fourth quarter because of higher financing costs, and it forecast weak first-quarter
sales volumes in the United States and Brazil.

The maker of Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois and Beck’s said net profit was $1.76 billion,
down from $1.85 billion in the same period a year ago. Exchange-rate-linked losses in the fourth
quarter of 2012 and gains on derivatives a year earlier caused a combined $400 million downward
swing that wiped out savings made through cost cuts.

The company managed to offset a dip in sales volumes in the fourth quarter by hiking prices,
leading to an 8.8 percent rise in revenue.

Over the whole of 2012, it said, sales volumes grew in the U.S., its most-profitable market, for
the first time since 2008 and “market share is showing signs of stabilizing.”

More than half of Budweiser sales now take place outside the U.S., the company said.

Cincinnati Bell

Cincinnati Bell Inc. said yesterday that its loss shrank in the final quarter of 2012 as revenue
grew and it didn’t repeat impairment and restructuring charges from a year ago. But the results
fell below analysts’ expectations and its outlook was weaker than expected. Its stock plunged 22
percent.

The net loss in the three months to Dec. 31 shrank to $12.4 million, or 6 cents per share, from
a loss of $33 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $374.7 million from $365.3 million a year earlier. That was better
than the $367 million expected by analysts.